Dec 25, 2009

A Clockwork Orange | Historical Context

1960s
In 1961, the year after Burgess had written his first draft of A Clockwork Orange, he and his wife took a trip to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in what was then the Soviet Union. During that trip, Burgess was appalled and intrigued by the roaming gangs of hoodlums he saw, called stilyaqi. Burgess noted how the police, preoccupied with ideological crimes against the state, had a difficult time controlling these unruly youths. He also noted the similarities of the Russian and British youth subcultures and was inspired to fashion a hooligan character who was a...